Comforts of Home 2nd Annual Pie Social

The competition was more fierce this year but we were confident that mom's famous banana cream pie would still be the favorite.  

The judges little helpers...

So much pie tasting and so little time...

...but in the end mom's famous pie came out on top.  No large trophies or our recipe in the next Betty Crocker magazine but some good old fashion glory!

Summer's Bounty

Our garden provided us with a lot of great produce this summer.  Just one of the many dishes prepared from our summer's bounty...fresh tomato sauce.

Impacting Lives

A service project the whole family could participate in...Impact Lives.  Our church helped pack up several thousand packages of food to be shipped to various parts of India.  This was just one of the many great activities during our month long anniversary celebration of our church celebrating 25 years.  Go God!

Anna pouring in flavoring...

Kate's job was to count and lay out the bags to be appropriately packed into the boxes...she took this job VERY seriously.

A lot of boxes = a lot of mouths fed.

Praying over the boxes that they may reach those in need and may they be blessed with nourishment.

More Garden Happenings

A garden friend...a tree frog finds a quiet place to relax and take in it's surroundings.

Another proud moment for Kate...her sunflower she started last spring from seed in her Kindergarten class.  With a little tender love and water the sunflower grew to be quite a beauty for her.

One last play date...

The girls long for play dates with school friends especially when they don't see their little buddies on a daily basis as they are used to...today was a play date with Brooke which included a lot of dress up and Barbies (and lunch of course).

Happy Little Gardeners

This summer we planted our first garden at our current house.  The gardening went by the wayside after we became pregnant with Kate several years ago.  This summer we decided to get our fingers dirty again and the girls each had a small plot in the large garden to plant whatever they wanted.  Each day was a new observation and once their produce was ready to be eaten we couldn't have had two prouder little gardeners!

Kate was so proud of her peas!  She was preparing a "salad" to eat with dinner.

Anna was another proud gardener and happy with her pea produce.

The girls each grew peas (Anna vine peas & Kate bush peas) and red zebra tomatoes.  Anna additionally chose to grow bird house gourds and Kate bush beans.  They were very successful gardeners!

I grew this...but it didn't taste good.  Overall, a very successful garden that was grown organically.  Many cucumbers were pickled, salsa canned, watermelons eaten, pesto frozen, relishes made and enough fall decor to wrap around the house!  We're looking forward to next year!

More Summer Activities

More summer activities...one of the girls' summer activities on their list was to eat popcorn and watch a movie on the porch.  Grandpa was privileged to join us this particular evening to cross this activity off of our list!